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and a rapid reaction team haven proven helpful for the following day. As IT
services are involved, a handout with the most important information is a
valuable companion for users during the first hours after the migration.
Communication during the migration
In addition to the technical changes, a transition to Cloud services also
means a lot of organisational changes. Accompanying the entire selection
and implementation process, these changes should be communicated in an
appropriate form inside the company.
The planning for this communication can be documented in the form of a
communication plan. The following issues should be taken into account in
the course of the communication process:
Explanation of new restrictions and limits, such as for e‐mail inboxes.
Instructions for preparatory steps for a data cleanup.
Documentation of interim processes in the migration context.
Documentation of the steps to be carried out by the user in the
migration context.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with experience and insights.
Solutions for known problems.
This information should be communicated sufficiently long in advance of the
planned transition. It is recommendable to establish a central information
service. This can, depending on the size of the company, be a specific
employee or a specific support mailbox and telephone number. Employees
will be asked to address all open questions to this central service, and
information should also be communicated through this instance.
Integration in existing IT
The use of hybrid IT‐structures consisting of existing resources and Cloud
services is currently the most widely used option to meet the need of
innovative services. This can, for example, be the combination of an existing
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with a customer relationship
management (CRM) system on the Cloud. The use of data adapters that are
also available from the Cloud allows the fully automatic exchange of data
structures between the local and Cloud IT. Therefore, creating a customer
data record in the ERP system also leads to a direct transmission of the data
to the Cloud system in use. Conversely, new contact data and relevant
